1. Field of The Invention
The present invention relates to a system for voice communication between workstations on a Local Area Network (LAN). More particularly, the present invention relates to a system for sending and receiving voice messages between workstations on a LAN that is completely independent of the network software in use.
2. Description Of The Related Art
LAN's are known for coupling together a plurality of workstations so that information can be readily transferred between workstations and resources can be shared. Heretofore, communication between workstations has been largely limited to messages which are typed on a keyboard at a particular workstation and transmitted to one or more of the other workstations that are logged into a file server. This type of communication between workstations has several limitations. The speed at which a message can be transferred from one workstation to another workstation is limited by both the speed and accuracy at which the user of the workstation sending the message can type. In addition, the number of characters which can be transferred for each message transmission is limited depending on the network software being used. For example, Novell NetWare.RTM. LAN software allows messages to be sent to users or groups of users via a "SEND" command. However, the length of each message is limited to 45 characters, minus the number of letters in the user name. Another limitation in standard network communication is that multiple incoming messages to a particular workstation are generally "stacked up" in the order in which they are received. After each message is displayed, read and cleared by the user, the next received message is displayed to be read. Accordingly, although a lengthy message may be sent using consecutive SEND commands, another user may send an intervening message effectively breaking up the lengthy message. Such communication is therefore not practical for communicating messages with great speed or for communicating particularly lengthy messages.
Recently, attempts have been made at broadcasting sound (e.g. audio messages) over a LAN. However, such attempts have required extensive network software modifications.